HEAR, HEAR
It’s Not That I Can’t Hear You. . .
It’s your accent. . . and you’re mumbling.
“Sorry?” I said to my partner this morning. Meaning, what did you just say?
He sighed. “I’ve had to repeat everything I’ve said. Over and over.”
“Well, sometimes I have to repeat things I say to you,” I said. “Over and over.”
“That’s because you mumble,” he said.
“And you speak clearly, of course,” I said.
“Of course,” he said.
It goes without saying (not even over and over), I thought. I don’t hear because (a) I’m not listening. (b) All that hair is covering my ears. ( c)I’m losing my hearing.
He doesn’t hear because (a) he’s not listening — he’s got better things to do. (b) he keeps his hair neatly trimmed away from his ears, and (c) I mumble while he speaks clearly and distinctly, even when he’s talking to himself, which he often does.
And, although he’s only a couple of years younger (hardly a toy boy) and, in the first romantic flush of our relationship, confided that his hearing isn’t what it once was, six years on the only one of us with hearing issues is . . . you guessed it.
